I seem to be moving in the unlit corners of the law lately. See my interest in the Champerty Act and legislation that’s still in force but not included in the normal indices of acts: 1275 and the Business of Law. This time I’m rooting around in 1763, modernizing rapidly it would seem, but stumped again at finding what I need online. Hence this request for help.

I want a digital copy of the official version of the Royal Proclamation of 7 October 1763, a fundamental document in Canada’s constitutional law concerning the rights of Aboriginal peoples. I have the “true” version, released as an Appendix to the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Affairs. But I can’t seem to find the version that is printed in the Appendix to the RSC 1985, which, according to the Royal Commission, differs from the true version in some small but important respects.

It’s not on CanLII so far as I can tell. And, more puzzling, it’s not easily found on the Department of Justice Laws site. Using the Constitution link on that site takes you to the Constitution Acts, but not to the Proclamation, even though it’s incorporated by reference (in part) in s. 25 of the Charter.

Of course, I suspect that my trouble is a product of my incompetence: I’m not searching correctly or in the right places. In which case, I need help.

Thanks, John. As always, you’re able to find the right stuff. Does it strike anyone as odd or at all neglectful that though the Proc is printed at the back of the RSCs, it’s not online in Canada in any official laws site? The thing is referenced by the Charter and by darn near every single appellate case involving aboriginal rights.

It is odd, but I am–without, of course, any real grounds for being so–hopeful that eventually many more things will be digitized, at least in pdf. We have Canada Gazette, Part III back to 1998, but not the regular statute volumes. One would think those volumes, including the Revised Statutes, would be an obvious project.The revised statutes for 1886 are available to subscribers on http://www.canadiana.org/. So are the sessional volumes, 1867 to 1872, and many pre-confederation volumes. The sessional Statutes of Canada, 1867 to 1945, appear to be available to subscribers on http://www.llmc.com/ too, though our proxy server isn’t giving me home access at the moment to verify that completely.